Timecop Being Rebooted Without Jean-Claude Van Damme

The Jean-Claude Van Damme movie Timecop was certainly one of the dumber action movies to emerge from the 1990s and one of the top earners for its star, but it didn't really go anywhere as a franchise. In 1997 there was a spinoff TV series and a direct-to-video feature called Timecop: The Berlin Decision, but neither made much of a pop culture impact. Still, Timecop is a recognizable name to some pockets of society, and Hollywood will never leave an unexploited brand alone.

The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Universal Pictures now has plans to reboot the franchise - without Van Damme's involvement. In the original, which was directed by Peter Hyams and based on the series from Dark Horse Comics, the martial artist starred as a police officer who regulates time travel in the future. A conflict arises when the officer discovers that a politician, played by Ron Silver, is using time travel to further his career. Reading the trade report it doesn't appear that anybody is involved yet on the creative side, but it does mention that the story will be "a re-imagining of the concept" and that they are currently looking for writers. Marc Shmuger (The Spectacular Now) and Tom McNulty (Date Night) are serving as producers.

Universal has one of the strongest blockbuster franchises in Hollywood at the moment with Fast & Furious going strong, but have slowly been building up more summer action potential series as well, producing upcoming movies like Riddick (a long-awaited sequel to 2004's The Chronicles of Riddick), Kick-Ass 2 (which many thought would never happen) and Snow White and the Huntsman 2, which is on target for a 2015 release. Timecop could fit in nicely with those growing plans.